Sunday, February 28, 2010

So apparently we haven't been busy enough to make Amy go into labor yet. Hmm... we can fix that!

Yesterday, as part of everything else we did, we cleaned out a desk that is going to find another home for some undetermined period of time. We're not giving it away, because I designed it and my step-father built it for me (he did custom cabinetry and other carpentry), and it has too much sentimental value to let go permanently. But for the present, at least, we need the room for other things. Today, after church, we disassembled it (we being Amy's dad and me, not Amy...) and transported it to its new home.

Well, now that it's out of the way, why not start redoing the office where it used to be? So I broke out the paint and put some sizable patches on the wall to make sure we like the color, and tomorrow we'll judge it in the light and either pick a different color or move the rest of the furniture out and go to town. Again. And I'm sure Amy won't sit idly by and watch. So if you're listening, little man, now would be a good time to make something happen...

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Today was a full day! It started out with a little house work, followed by the kids' favorite, a project for kids at Lowe's. I've attached a few pictures below. After that, we worked in the yard, getting dead stuff trimmed back for Spring, killing weeds, and just generally spiffing up. And before you think I made my almost-40-week-pregnant wife work outside, know that it was her idea, and she was more than half-hoping it would make something (i.e.- labor) happen...

I took Peter and Sydney to the coin operated car wash here nearby and washed both cars, just because it was a beautiful day and it seemed like a good idea. Maybe not so much after letting Peter and Sydney take turns with the power-spray nozzle, but oh well...

Friday, February 26, 2010

I had a few minutes to kill, and I started clicking on the "Next Blog" link at the top of this page...

I clicked 12-15 times, and every time, without a single exception, Blogger directed me to a blog either about adoption, adoption activism, or by an adoptive family.

So, apparently Google thinks they know me, and they want to send me to sites I'll resonate with, rather than just a random blog. Either that, or adoptive families have taken over Blogger and replaced all material not related to adoption with adoption stories.

Anyone else experience this kind of "targeted" selection for Next Blog?

Okay, this appears to be much better. Instead of sending in a post via SMS, I'm using the phone's browser to post through the normal web interface. A little more effort, but worth it for the extra features available.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Sydney loves science experiments. And her dad loves getting to do them with her!

That's salt making the glass on the left cloudy in case you were wondering. Oh, and it makes the egg float too. But contrary to popular opinion, it won't save you from having to salt the egg when we cook it.

Vinegar and Baking Soda. Stinky, but fun. And yes, the wine had been safely ingested with friends several days earlier, don't fret! Sydney was very interested to know when the balloon would deflate. Turns out the answer is "pretty soon", as the air (and freshly generated carbon dioxide, naturally) seeped out around the neck of the balloon before bedtime.

Kate's version of a science experiment is rolling her head around on a sofa and enjoying having her family laugh at her hair. If you can't see her hair, click to see a larger version. She looks like she just grabbed hold of a Van de Graaff generator...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

If you had said the words "door maintenance" to me three years ago, I would have thought you were talking about oiling the hinges and the lock to stop squeaks. Little did I know how spoiled I was with a painted metal door that faced north under a covered front porch.

Now we have a south-facing wood door that is stained and finished, and much to my surprise, it requires regular maintenance. Well, "requires" is a funny word, isn't it? It's not like the previous owner did any. When we moved in, you could tell the door needed some spiffing up, but it wasn't that bad. Two years later, however, it was that bad.

Monday, February 22, 2010

For a while now, Peter has been in the mode of loving to hear stories told before bed. Actually, he loves stories all day long, but we have set the standard that right before bed (nap and at night) is the time for Mommy and Daddy to make up a story. It's not as hard as it sounds, as pretty much any story that involves a little boy named Peter gets two thumbs up. Past storylines have involved Peter riding a train, flying on a rocket, helping to put out fires, and all kinds of other activities that little boys love to dream about. His favorite, however, is to ask for a story about a boy who doesn't have a hammer and nails.

I can see you re-reading that last sentence to make sure you didn't miss something.

That's right, he asks for a story about a little boy (named Peter, of course) who does not have a hammer and some nails. How exactly we arrived at that is not completely clear to me, but it involves the construction of our swing set last Spring, Peter's assistance in said project, and the inevitable stories that went with it about building all kinds of fun things with a hammer and nails. Invariably, the little boy in the stories starts out by getting a hammer and some nails and various other tools, and proceeding to build whatever Mommy or Daddy can come up with off the tops of their heads, but it is very important that the story start out sans tools, which is fascinating to me. I'm not sure if it's because Peter recognizes that he does not own such tools, or if he thinks the story will be longer if the boy does not start out with what he needs, or if there is some other basis for the story that is not understood even by Peter. I do know, however, that anyone who offers to tell Peter a story about a boy who doesn't have a hammer and nails will find themselves with a captive audience.

Oh, by the way, in case either of the people who stumbles across my site hadn't noticed...

If you don't want to comment on a post, you can now leave your reaction with a single click. At the end of each post is a "Your take" section, where you can click on one of the available choices. C'mon, how hard is that? At least throw me a bone and let me know someone is reading the site...

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I mean, honestly. Google Mail, Google Apps, Google Maps, Picasa, Blogger, Google Wave, Google Voice, and something just popped up about "Buzz" when I checked my mail earlier. Don't know what that's about yet, but those are just the things I have been tinkering with! (Editor's note: I somehow failed to mention Google Calendar, Google Docs, Orkut, Google Reader, Google Code, and YouTube... what was I thinking?)

So, Google Voice...

So far, I like it. One number that can ring to whatever other numbers you want, and you can set up schedules for weekdays, weekends, etc, for each number. Voicemail gets transcribed and emailed and/or sent via SMS to a mobile phone, in addition to be available through the Google Voice website. You can make outgoing calls in what seems very similar to a Skype or Vonage setup. It's slick, and I'm sure it will just get better.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

My Linux server that at one time or another faithfully hosted a number of domains, including this one, 02victor.com, carolynjoe.com, pecks.org and hewletts.org, is now powered down. Now that all the domains I have a hand in have been moved to other hosting solutions, I'm able to free myself of running a server at home.

It was a good run!

I've had that machine for just shy of 11 years, and the last 7 it had been on 24/7, except for maintenance, hardware issues, and the occasional power outage! The processor, power supply, video card, sound card, memory, and hard drives had all been either replaced or upgraded over the years, but everything else (let's see... that would be the motherboard, NIC, optical drives, and chassis...) were the same!

I'm going to give it a few days of rest to verify that I don't need anything else off the hard drives than what has already been backed up, and then the hard drives will come out, and the server will be no more. *sniff*

Yes, it's time again to talk about those things I wish would induce labor, but don't. People keep saying "it could happen any day!" While true, it doesn't feel that way...

Amy doesn't want any part of pitocin this time around (due to increased risk given past history), so we're waiting to see if this little boy will decide to come on his own, or if we'll end up scheduling a c-section. In the interim, I keep thinking about things I wish would trigger labor, like

It appears I lost all my followers when I changed around the domain so that www.bredenbergs.com points here. Alas... hopefully they will find me again.

FYI - photos from more than 4 years ago will not appear, as I am still working on updating all those old links to point to the new storage location. I may start on that in my "free time" (cough, cough), so don't hold your breath.

UPDATE - Thanks to Blogger's "missing files host" option, the vast majority of photos included in old entries should now be working.

Friday, February 5, 2010

I said when we first set up this Blogger site that I would eventually convert my blog from my old home-hosted Wordpress site completely to this site. Well, guess what! It's not as easy as it might sound... Ok, it might not sound easy either...

Anyway, it's finally done. I found a utility that converted most of the posts (and most of the comments, but a few went missing along the way...) into a format that could be imported into Blogger, and I manually filled in the posts that would not convert for some reason. You should be able to see any of the posts back to when I first started posting on ye olde worlde wide webbe, though I can't guarantee many of the links from back then will still work.

I still have to move the images and other attachments off of my server and put them somewhere Blogger can link to them, but that's another step on down the road...